Silhouette Studio Edit Points: Everything Beginners Need to Know (and More!)

As promised, today I have a rather in-depth tutorial on how to use, manipulate and design with edit points in Silhouette Studio.  By the time you get to the bottom of this post you're gonna be an expert edit pointer!

But first perhaps your wondering what is an edit point in Silhouette Studio and why do I care about them.  Edit points are those little gray or white or sometimes red circles you get all over design if you accidentally double click the shape or text.   In the most basic form think of a line. The line has two edit points...one at one end, one at the other. That's it...edit points are basically the building blocks of designs and between them are the lines...either straight or curved.  So put four edit points together and you have a square or rectangle...one at each corner; or a circle when the lines between each of the points is curved instead of flat.  Put a whole bunch of edit points together and you create a design.  But by adjusting the edit points and learning how to manipulate them you can actually create your own designs or modify those you already own as I touched on here.

Let's start by checking out an example of how edit points can really help you in a real life project. I'm not a designer and I am guessing most of you wouldn't consider yourself designers either, but that doesn't mean we can't totally use edit points to make our creations designer-worthy.

Later this week I'm going to share how I turned a this note from my daughter into a pillow, but before I could do that I had to do some editing to it.  The note was written on lined paper and when I traced it in Silhouette Studio, some of the lines were traced as well...and attached to my letters. BOOO!!

When working with edit point you need to ungroup your design and depending on the design you may also need to release the compound path.  (Select design > Right click > ungroup and/or right click > release compound path).

Then zoom in really close on the area that needs some editing.  This "I" has the line attached under it and I want to get rid of that line. I could use the knife or eraser tools, but it will be very difficult to get really close to the letter without chopping into it or freezing the software (just bein' real).

Now that I'm zoomed in close I am going to double click on the letter. When I double click on the letter I'll get the edit points.  Every single gray dot is an edit point.



When you get the edit points you also get the Point Editing window on the right side. This is one of those 'hidden' windows that you can't just click on from the toolbar.

Now I can click on one of those gray edit points..and if I hold down SHIFT and click I can click on several of them at the same time.  When they are selected they'll turn white. 

I have about 7 selected on the far left of that line and when I hit "delete point" from the window on the right.   The line shrinks to this...

My 'lined paper line' is shrinking but it's still there. I need to delete more edit points. So I continue holding down shift and clicking (and deleting) all of the edit points that are extended out to the left of my letter.  Getting there....

Finally I get to this.  That last edit point has a rotating bar on it that allows me to move the curve. When I pull the bar down the 'nub' is flattened out.


I repeated this same process for the other side of the I, as well.

And here's a side by side so you can see the results of editing and deleting all of those edit points.

The same process was repeated for every other letter that had a "line" attached to it until I got to this point.

Now that you know how to select, select multiple, and delete points let's talk about the rest of those options.

The easiest way to demonstrate this is with just a basic rectangle...made up of just four edit points. 

Look what happens when I select the two bottom edit points...and then hit 'smooth.' The line curves and I'm given a lever bar.

Move that lever bar down and can you create a totally new shape as the bottom of the rectangle is curved out.

The design above is still only four edit points. But if I hit "simplify" several more/new edit points are added to my new shape as shown below. 

If I were to click one of the edit points along the rounded side and click on "make flat" that line between the edit points goes from slightly curved to a straight line.

"Break Path" will actually create a break in your design.  The break - as tiny as it is - is indicated by a red edit point.  If you have a break in your design you will not be able to fill it with a color or pattern. 

TIP: If you ever have trouble filling a design double click it to see the edit points and then you can find the break by looking for the red edit point.

To repair the break and close it up, double click on the red edit point.  The white dot with the gray line indicates the repaired break point.

Thanks for taking today's master class on Silhouette Edit Points! Did I forget anything?  How have you found edit points useful when working in Silhouette Studio?

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine! 

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School.  If you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!